Chris Whitehouse, a political consultant and expert on medical technology policy and regulation at Whitehouse Communications, flags a substantial new fund available for medtech start-ups and scale-ups.
The British Business Bank has announced a 100 million GBP commitment to Apposite Healthcare Growth I, a fund investing to support the growth of health technology companies, primarily in the UK. This will be the British Business Bank’s largest fund commitment to date and is the Bank’s first commitment to Apposite Capital.
Apposite Capital is a specialist healthcare and life sciences investor, and the fund will invest in innovative companies across medical products, diagnostics, life sciences tools, digital health, and pharmaceutical outsourcing services.
The fund aims to address the shortage of scale-up capital for UK life sciences companies approaching a growth inflection, which aligns with the Bank’s strategy to create deeper pools of scale up funding. The fund will invest in UK companies developing market leading technologies and services to improve patient outcomes and access to healthcare, while enabling them to compete globally and create highly skilled jobs.
The British Business Bank is the largest investor in UK venture and venture growth capital funds and regularly makes cornerstone commitments to funds that are aligned with its strategy. By acting as a cornerstone investor, the Bank enables a fund to achieve a first, supporting their launch and enabling them to execute their strategy at greater scale.
The British Business Bank intends to deliver a step change in its support for UK scale ups and says it “is targeting over 60% of its venture and growth investment flow towards scale-ups”. As part of this strategy, the Bank aims to support the launch of 10 new to market growth-stage funds over the next five years and will write larger cheques into leading fund managers.
Christine Hockley, Managing Director and Co-Head of Funds, British Business Bank, said: “The UK needs growth stage funding, and the Bank is stepping up to deliver this. Working with the UK’s venture capital community, we are looking to support the creation of growth stage funds capable of writing significant cheques into the next generation of UK unicorns. To help these funds launch and ensure they have the size and firepower needed, we are writing larger cheques and signalling these commitments to institutional investors, with the intention it mobilises the private sector.”
Mark Andrews, Investment Director, Funds, Life Sciences, British Business Bank, said: “The need for scale up funding is especially pronounced in life sciences. However, there remains a shortage of later-stage funds, meaning that many promising life sciences companies cannot fulfil their potential in the UK and may embark on premature or sub-optimal exits. Apposite’s new fund has a clear focus on growth stage investing in life sciences and will help convert world-leading UK science into global companies.”
Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Business and Trade, said: “We’ve committed to backing our most ambitious companies, ensuring the UK leads in innovation and competes globally. This record investment into Apposite Capital delivers on that promise by giving it the financial firepower to support the UK’s most exciting healthcare tech firms scale, develop cutting edge medical products and diagnostics, and improve healthcare right across the country.”
The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to drive economic growth by helping smaller businesses get the finance they need to start, scale and stay in the UK. In doing so, we help capture the economic value of innovation for the UK and create jobs and prosperity for people across the country.
The Author used AI in preparing this article. Comments upon or questions about this article can be addressed to chris.whitehouse@whitehousecomms.com.
